Surah Al-Kahf 18:12
سُورَةُ الكَهۡفِ · Meccan · Verse 12 of 110
ثُمَّ بَعَثْنَٰهُمْ لِنَعْلَمَ أَىُّ ٱلْحِزْبَيْنِ أَحْصَىٰ لِمَا لَبِثُوٓا۟ أَمَدًۭا
Translation
Then We woke them so that We could make clear which of the two parties was better able to work out how long they had been there.
English translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem.
Meaning and reflection
'Then We awakened them, to make evident which of the two factions was better at calculating the time they had remained.' al-Saadi and Ibn Ashur note the awakening becomes itself a test and a sign, a dispute arises over how long they slept, which the story will resolve by pointing everyone back to God's knowledge. Ask yourself: even the miracle sparks an argument over a detail. It is a quiet preview of the human tendency the Surah keeps exposing, to get lost in secondary questions (how long? how many?) and miss the point (that God preserves and revives). When something remarkable happens in my life, do I marvel at the God behind it, or immediately get tangled in disputing the mechanics, the timeline, the details, arguing about the miracle instead of being moved by it?
Grounded in classical tafsir: al-Saadi, Ibn Ashur, al-Biqa'i.
Topics that discuss this verse
Surah Al-Kahf 18:12 is discussed in 7 study guides on Maani. Each guide gathers the key verses, Arabic words and lessons of one Quranic topic.
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